good evening everyone can you hear me good I'm Rebecca Hawthorne president of the League of Women Voters of the wetta Plymouth area I'd like to welcome our candidates our audience and our viewers at home on behalf of our host the League of Women Voters wi Isetta Plymouth area the League of Women Voters is a 104 yearold volunteer nonpartisan organization that encourages the informed and act active participation of citizens in government works to increase understanding of major public policy issues and influences public policy through education and advocacy the league does not support or oppose any political party or candidate the views expressed in tonight's Forum are those of the candidates not those of the League of Women Voters it is our purpose in sponsoring forums such as this to provide you with the opportunity to hear candidates discuss face Toof face the issues that are important to you this is a nonpartisan Forum we ask that campaign buttons or campaign t-shirts not be worn nor signs or literature be distributed in this room please silence your electronic devices at this time and now I'd like to introduce you to our moderator for this evening's Forum William Johnson of Plymouth and A League of Women Voters wetta Plymouth area member good evening tonight's forum is provided to give you an opportunity to learn about the candidates running for Mound city council there's never enough time to cover all the issues in a setting such as this if your questions were not addressed feel free to contact the candidate directly or or speak to them afterwards the leue of Women Voters posts complete unedited recordings of its for fors editing is authorized only for official media reporting only the full uned unedited recording may be used by other persons and organization the rules for this evening's form are as follows candidates will be allowed an opening statement with a maximum of one minute to State their experience platform and objectives a question and answer period will follow the opening statements the answers will be confined to one minute unless otherwise designated opening statement will be given in an alphabetical order and questions will then be answered in a rotating order a 15sec warning sign will be given by our Ace timekeeper and after that 15 seconds uh she'll hold up a stop sign candidates please finish your sentence quickly when you see the stop sign or you will be interrupted the candidates will also be given a two-minute closing statement No reference of a personal nature will be tolerated a person's public record may be examined but not their character this forum is made available to encourage the voting public to focus on the issues and not on personalities we ask that there be no demonstrations and support or opposition to the candidates or their positions and the C that the candidate be allowed their full-time to get their points across the public has been encouraged to submit questions online in advance of this forum for those in the audience if you have a question write it on a 3x5 card that you were given from our volunteers and raise your hand to have it picked up audience questions will be taken for the first 30 minutes of the Forum the timekeeper will alert me the moderator when 30 minutes have elapsed uh and we won't take any further questions questions that are unclear H are of a personal nature will not be used those that fall into the same general category may be consolidate Consolidated the candidates running for two seats on the Mound City Council are Kevin Castellano Michelle Herrick Joanna Khan and Trey wood son all right we will begin with inter introductory Mark remarks starting with Kevin Castellano I have lived in Mound for over 20 years and am your current city council member I was on the Planning Commission for four years prior to this I have a strong background in Municipal budgetary management having worked at the city of wetta for just shy of 10 years with proven results in running an effective and efficient budget this is also shown here in Mound with our recently completed long-term financial plan as I am also on our finance committee this plan will soon have the city in better Financial shape than it's been in in decades transparency and communication are important to me and collaborating with our neighboring cities and outside agencies keeping the momentum going on our water on improving our water is also a focus of mine as well as the continued and ongoing improvements to our Downtown Commons I'm also fully supportive of our Orono police department and local Mount Fire Department this is a very exciting time to be part of the continued development in downtown and I look forward to continuing the work thank you thank you Michelle herck hi thank you to the League of Women Voters and William for sponsoring this event my name is Michelle herck as stated um I've been in the financial industry since 1981 I've traded Securities I've sold Securities and I've also become a senior project manager which is my current role in that role I'm responsible for running large budgets um dealing with the resources that are available to us reporting and um commentating to senior leadership I do quite a bit of analysis work as well as provide detailed reports um both financial and recommendations as I said to leadership um I've lived in the mound Community just under 20 years I've been very active and involved in the development work that a lot of the different projects that have come up and and I feel like I understand exactly what the community wants and would like to see happen with our community thank you Joanna Khan my name is Joanna Khan and I also want to thank the League of Women Voters and everyone here tonight and to my fellow candidates for embracing this opportunity it's nice to have everyone in attendance um my family moved from Orange County California to Mound five years ago um back in California I worked as a high school English teacher and I also worked at a state prison so I've got some fun stories if you ever run into me later um since we've been in Minnesota I've been a stay-at-home mom our kids are in first grade and then I have two kids in preschool and I've also I'm in my second term as a Parks commissioner for the city of Mound um when we moved to Minnesota we didn't have any family in the state and so we've had to create a network by becoming intimately involved in the city I love Mound I love our quality of life here and I have a lot of ideas to um improve that quality even further I look forward to hearing everyone's questions tonight and to hearing the other candidates responses thank you thank you Trey Woodson my name is uh Trey Woodson and I also like to uh thank the League of Women Voters for having us here today um I'm probably the U newest candidate here me and my wife moved here uh seven years ago and fell in love with Mound um we recently after years of renting bought a house um in Mound and we had a son so we're definitely planting some Roots here my background is in um engineering so specifically my main points are infrastructure structure I know we're working a lot with all sorts of different projects and I'd like to be a part of it um because I know there's you know um in my field uh I work with uh builders and contractors and and construction Crews and and I just feel like I'd have a good uh background to bring to the table so all right thank you all right I will now start the questions you'll be answering in a rotating order and you'll have one minute for each questions if you need me to repeat a question uh by the way let me know all right the first question will go to Joanna Khan what is your top priority for mound as a council candidate how would you address it if elected thank you so much um my top c um issue or priority um obviously the water really has to be top of mind for everyone um we do need to continue to work to get that water treatment plant funded the city council has been working very hard on this issue there's no fault in what anyone has done so far it's just an ongoing issue and we need funding from the state and federal Monies um other than that which is kind of obvious um I would really like to focus on the infrastructure of downtown and focusing on quality of life in terms of walkability beauty people having an encouraging access to all of our businesses and encouraging people to um explore our downtown and kind of hang out and enjoy all that mountain has to offer all right thank you Trey Woodson what your top priority for Mount as a council candidate and how would would you address it if elected um infrastructure is kind of going back to um what Miss Khan was saying is uh the water is obviously a very important issue that we're all uh kind of concerned about um I don't have the direct answer but I want to work with our leaders or city leaders and uh the current Council to kind of come up with a solution for that um other than that I know we're working on other projects but the water's the main the main concern all right Michelle herck same question thank you um obviously as been previously stated um one of the biggest concerns is the water um and the funding of that water treatment plant that we've been discussing currently I think it's estimated to cost approximately I think $34 million a little bit over that um I know we've collected just under 11 million from the state and federal funding um I'm concerned about where the rest of that funding is going to come from um as we all know we have a very high-priced water bill every month people are frustrated with the color of the water which by the way is iron for those are not familiar um the maganese is obviously a health issue and I would like to better understand and I think the community would as well where we're going to come up with the remaining funds um whether that's through a bond issue which I'm very familiar with or from an increase in the expenses associated with building that thank you Kevin calano uh my top priority um has been kind of in tandem with with uh water improvements but really just to continue um the work on our budget health so that's a big problem for our city we have two different funds that have a significant deficit and if we don't start working on them they will you know it's not going to go away they just continue to get worse so they are getting better there's a plan to get them both healthy in 10 years so this will help us get to where we need with the work that's needed on the water but the budget Health overall is my number one priority that'll benefit all residents as well once that is nice and healthy all right thank you all right um our next question it'll first go to Michelle herck what is your vision for development in M what types of uses and structure would you support Michelle well as everyone in this room probably knows and as well as those people that are home I do not support um high density housing or development work that benefits the developer I think it's critical that we support the on and needs of our community there's a large group of people that would like to see us keep our um city both quaint there's a delicate balance between what that looks like um there are opportunities obviously um within the area for development excuse me um I think the community obviously wants a lot more restaurants so that's up to the businesses to come in here and create that type of a situation as well as make it viable from a business standpoint the city cannot manage businesses nor can they direct them on how to set them up so I would like to see us be a little bit more involved and a little bit more stringent on those development needs and wants thank you Kevin calano can you state the question again as well yep thanks it says what is your vision for development in Mound what types of uses and structures would you support uh having been on the Planning Commission for four years prior uh this is something that we have made a lot of progress on and we really listen to uh What the residents wanted to see as far as transparency going forward so we did Implement a new policy that brings a developer or a prospective business owner um with a plan to the city council first to get it in front of residents before it even goes to our Planning Commission uh we also do have density restrictions having listened to what people would like um high density buildings uh simply won't be an option uh we did put some restrictions on that and there aren't a lot of empty lots left so I think the plan is to put this new policy in place and be very careful with uh what we choose to develop and what little space we have left thank you Trey Woodson um well like my fellow candidates have said I think high density housing um you know I I don't think it's really an option for us I'd like to see us kind of expand our business options I know we do have a few uh Loc ations in Mound uh that that don't have uh any tenants in it and hopefully I can work with the city leaders and current Council to get um business into those buildings so all right thank you Joanna KH thank you this is one of my um major platform points um I do believe that mountain should follow the 2040 plan that was amended I think a year or two ago to limit that high density housing um since I've been here in the past 5 years there have been multiple apartment buildings proposed and every time the citizens of the city went to city council to shut that down so I do want to support the citizens and make sure that mound abides by its own rules and limits it to um medium or low density housing going forward I think you know Mound already is you know 90 95% residential our business core is really very small and that's what makes Mound feel like such a small town that's the wonderful part of it so moving forward what I would love to see in terms of development is to focus on businesses in that downtown core and stop building housing in the downtown which was one of the issues with the proposed Department complex behind um Our Lady of the Lake we need more businesses down there and not more housing in that area um thank you all right thank you actually that leads into our next question which will go first to Trey Woodson what do you see as the greatest challenge to starting or growing a business in Mound what if anything should the role of city government be in supporting businesses Trey well I think city government uh they should really limit restrictions uh for businesses to to start um and especially for mound I feel like um and I the the current Council and current leadership has done an awesome job of of trying to drum up business uh so it's it's not anything against them but I feel like we need to take proactive steps uh to get businesses interested Mound and maybe the first step in that is getting some additional uh you know people in the city um yeah and that's that's it all right Joanna Khan well Mich Michelle said earlier was correct that the government can't control what businesses open up um and what they do and you know attracting businesses but what the government city government does have control over is all the rest of the infrastructure in downtown the sidewalks the plan the lights the crosswalks and our current Council has done a lot of really positive work there um and we're going to continue to do that as a member of the Parks Commission I'm well aware of the Lost Lake Commons park that will be um starting it is starting construction now and will be continuing over the next few years we're going to have a very attractive downtown compared to what existed just maybe two years ago um so I do think that the government has a lot of control over the basic infrastructure and we can do a lot of work there to make downtown Mound more attractive to businesses and make them want to set up here cuz I do think mound's undergone a big change in the past 20 years I think there's a lot of people here that would prefer to spend money here and don't want to have to drive 20 minutes out of town to go somewhere else to spend their money thank you thank you Kevin Castellano I would agree um with Joanna Khan too that uh does look a lot different than it did 20 years ago and we're um you know slowly headed in that direction but the greatest challenge is Optics Optics are important so I think we need to continue to work on making our downtown look more appetizing to people that want to open a business here um I know that's one thing that I would personally be thinking of uh if I were looking to for a spot to place my business and we are working on it I mean you can see it everywhere Sur side looks better than it ever has lost Lake Commons is going to be great I mean we're going to have a space literally in downtown for people to gather which is going to be a a vital key um what we can control is zoning and codee so you know that's all we can really focus on and make this as appetizing a place as possible for people to want to visit and open a small business thanks Michelle herck thank you um to Kevin's Point um yes we do control the zoning codes um I think that um both as Joanna and Trey have said we and I said earlier actually um we can't control the businesses that come in and out of here other than through permitting um we do have a lot of uh work that's been done by the city council and I commend them on that work as far as the infrastructure sidewalks making it more conducive to the senior citizens in our community and providing a safe environment for them is very very important to me um I think the city council's role and the mayor is to promote and advocate for the city into the business community and try to attract new businesses it is a difficult situation we are a bedroom community and probably will continue to be people buy a house out here or relocate out here because they like the quaintness they go out of the community and they stop on their way and they may or may not come into here and buy something or service or product um so it's really up to the business to determine what the needs and wants are thank you all right next question we'll go first to Kevin Castellano Public Safety are you satisfied with the police services that are currently provided to M residents by the Oro Police Department why or why not if not what alternatives would you like to explore to provide Police Services Mr Castellano uh personally I am very satisfied with our contracted orinal Police Department we do have an obligation to look at and renew and review that contract every so often uh like any City would so that's something that we have to look at even if we are very happy but I think they serve Mound quite well um what I hear from residents is that they're great uh response times are quick um they're they are present they're reachable they're around um I'm I'm very happy okay thank you Michelle herck um as far as the police and fire department I agree with Kevin I believe the mo for the most part um the community believes in the police force and the fire department as it is um but I also agree with him in the sense that yes we do need to evaluate that contract go out and do a you know RFQ with the available uh resources that we may or may not have available to us um as far as um Community safety I know we've had some issues in the past I'm hoping that those have improved however I'm not really sure because I don't study the police reports um maybe as closely as I should um we obviously have a drug problem here in this community just like a lot of other communities have we are a small community so providing that type of protection is essential to the community thank you Trey Woodson yeah I think our police have done a really good job I also think we should explore other options too with uh I know we have a contract with Orno um and I know in the past we've used miniat Trista I'm not really sure if that's an option but always keep those options on the table I think for the most part and one of the reasons we moved to Mound was because the crime here is is is almost non-existent I mean there are car break-ins and here or there we'll have you know uh Speeders or whatever but for Mo for the most part um it's it's a pretty safe City and I think the police do a really really good job um I would I would like to say that we could have more officers around it's always you know Public Safety is always a big concern but when you see the the police patrolling it's it gives everyone kind of some reassurance so all right thank you Joanna Khan yeah I'm going to mostly Echo what everyone else said I'm really happy with the Oro Police Department I was lucky enough to get a tour there last year and they are underst staffed which is just a chronic problem for all police departments that's nothing new for Orono um they're probably doing better than Minneapolis is um overall Mound is a pretty safe Community you know I have a little bit of a different perspective I'm from Southern California originally so when people have safety concerns out here the level of safety concerns out here versus where I come from are just completely different planets which is a wonderful thing and which is why we're here um I feel very safe my kids roam around the neighborhood and Beyond where they should even um but we're very safe I appreciate the work that orop has done and I would be very curious to know why that question was written and what's going on with that person I'd love to get more details there thank you all right thank you all right the flip side of this since 1923 mountains relied on a volunteer fire department what are your thoughts about continued Reliance on a volunteer fire department if you don't feel that Reliance on Volunteers in Mountain's best interest what alternatives would you explore and first to Joanna Khan I'm going to be real careful with my answer here since I have two firefighters in my neighborhood um um again my perspective is slightly different because from in California it's a completely professional and extremely competitive fire services and then here we do have the volunteers um from everything that I've seen the fire department serves us really well I know it's been a challenge for all these small communities and they are kind of looking at consolidating Mound and St Bonnie and the smaller cities to try to work better together I feel like because Mound is the larger Department I know that they get called on a lot of mutual Aid um I don't have enough information and on being on city council I would have better information to answer that question further thank you thank you Trey Woodson um I I like that we have a volunteer fire department I think that uh like Joan KH was saying I think we have the larger Fire Department volunteer and you know so like St Bon's looking for fire uh Vol firefighter volunteers and they can never seem to fill those positions um so I feel like at some point we're getting stretch kind of thin when we're trying to run around and try to help out other cities but for the most part I feel like we do a really good job um and and I support the firefighter so Kevin Castellano can you state the question again sure since 1923 Mount has relied on a volunteer fire department what are your thoughts about continue Reliance on a volunteer fire department and if you don't feel you continue to rely on volunteers uh what alternatives would you explore um I definitely lead this up to listening to them um anytime time we have any of them present at any meeting U most notably the chief I learn a lot every time from them and you really just need to listen to what they're telling you that they need whether it's adapting for volunteer to full-time um really just to however they're going to be able to get to where they need to be on time um budgeting is an important part of that too and what everyone else has said so far too that industry is changing and almost every fire department is needing to adapt in one way or another whether to meet um budget or service expectations so I don't have you know anything against or for volunteer or full-time part-time but listening to what they tell us that they need most taking their advice is the direction that we should head thank you Michelle herck um interesting question I haven't heard from the community that there's any complaints about the volunteer fire department um I will say though that I do know that there are a certain amount of expectations for the city uh City's volunteer fire department to provide services outside of Mound um in some of those neighboring communities such as St Bonnie um when there is an alarm that needs additional assistance Mound is typically called um that also I think involves some sort of reciprocation agreement that they have I'm not sure how that's funded but I know there's some issues around that so I would be interested in understanding that a little bit more in detail um as Joanna said some of that information is not really something something that I've centered in on so I would like to know more before I make any additional comments okay thank you this next question deals with water quality in fact I think that this question was on the questions the last time I did The Forum out here so um anyway maybe there's something we haven't explored but the question is because of unsafe levels of Manganese identified in Mounds water expensive new water treatment is required state and federal funds have not yet been obtained to cover the full cost what if any could be done to obtain additional funds Michelle herck um as I stated earlier I've been in the financial industry for a long time one of the things that I specialized in for years is the um underwriting of municipal bonds and funding for uh municipalities such as Mount so I have a good understanding of how that works and how it operates um the upgraded increase 're not increase but the upgrade um to our standard importers rating which is upgraded to double A Plus is a better rating for funding it causes the um city or municipality to underwrite debt at a lesser in uh interest rate um I really don't understand or well I mean I understand I just don't agree with the fact that we'll be able to get all of our funding from the state and the federal governments um at some point this will be an expense that the city's citizens will have to assume thank you Kevin calano so that it is very expensive uh and it's never going to get cheaper it is currently the project is at about 36 million needed and we're a third of the way there so we have made a lot of progress on it um and it would be one of my number one priorities um and that is what everyone has mentioned to me that is most important to them as well it's their number one priority um every neighborhood they want it to get done and it's just not getting any cheaper at one point not too long ago it was a $24 million project and then recent inflation that 36 so I mean but we're a third of the way there um we hit a couple crucial Milestones to get that product shovel ready they would call it for like the next step which should really help us um get on Pace to get more funding so we're getting there um as fast as we can but it would be a definite priority of M interest listening to the residents that they want to focus on that first thank you Joanna Khan um obviously water is probably the most important priority for the city um we all know that that water treatment plant does need to be funded as they mentioned we're a third of the way there um the water treatment plant would take care of the manganese in the water and the iron in the water which is what causes the discoloration so it would take care of the health issues and kind of the appearance issues um the big challenge with this is it's kind of like an unfunded mandate um for anyone that works in education that's very similar with special ed there's a lot of rules that you have to follow that the federal government sets and then doesn't give you the money to actually you know be able to follow those rules and that's kind of what this feels like we've been told the manganese levels are too high and they're unsafe and we have to fix it and the reality is as a small community of you know 10,000 people we don't have the ability to have raised $36 million so again the council has done a wonderful job advocating for us so far um you know this could change depending on who gets elected in November so pay attention to those candidate races that are above us you know this would be a great question for the Forum that's going to be next thank you thank you Woodson yeah so the water um trying to um drum up resources for uh our water treatment plan I know it's always been difficult um the third of the funding that we did get came from the government so I feel like the majority of it will end up coming from them um like m Michelle herck was saying um we'll probably have to at some point uh it's going to we're going to have to bite the bullet and we're going to have to probably get some funding from from from the citizens themselves but uh for the most part I don't know answer but I believe currently the current Council and our current leadership have done a great job of getting the money that we have got so we are as Kevin was saying shov ready so thank you all right next question we'll go first to uh Trey Woodson Mountain City operating and infrastructure costs are rising what are your ideas for managing City revenues and expenses Mr Woodson so my background is in I'm the director of engineering um but my background is uh working with construction teams like Builders and um you know uh one of the things you you want to do when you're you're looking for an infrastructure um or you're looking for contractors uh per se is make sure you're not using the same one each time because eventually um the contractors end up becoming your friends end up charging you more so I think we need to uh definitely kind of you know vet and and kind of uh scr and look for different uh contractors and Builders uh for our infrastructure needs okay Joanna Khan thank you um this is an area you know I got an email recently from a resident she wanted some clarification on some of my platform and her question that was she led with was like what are you unhappy about with Mound and I'm just really pleased to say that you know this area managing revenue and expenses is one area that I am really happy about I know city council has done really great work in creating that long-term financial plan we got in a new city manager and a new assistant city manager and together with the council they have this new 10-year plan that you know some under someone that volunteered under the previous you know city manager we didn't have that transparency before I know this is something current city council is paying a lot of attention to they're very fiscally responsible and should I be elected to council I look forward to continuing that work with them all right thank you Michelle herck uh as far as infrastructure goes obviously the streets and um the water and the sewer system are very important however the sewer system is um at Council um excuse me I think um maybe it was Kevin that mentioned that the long-term um budget that's been set for 10 years has two components to it both revenue and expenses um the city in the past has done an excellent job of keeping expenses down however I think it's caused problems with the actual uh funding of some of the issues that have come up um transparency obviously is very important which we haven't done a good job of in the past I believe the city council and the mayor have worked very diligently over the last couple years to try to improve that however you know you can lead a horse to water I don't think the citizens are as informed as we'd like them to be and up to dat with the information um I don't know what we're going to do about that other than continue to plug along and try to increase that awareness through social media and other variables all right thank you Kevin calano um to put it simply we we budget for it it does take a lot of planning and continuous work every year is different uh but the biggest part of it is making sure that our Capital Improvement fund is fully funded and that those reserves are there when things break or need to be replaced um we are relatively small in size but we have a lot of old equipment over 30 lift stations we have a lot of old stuff that is expensive to replace and a lot of it is almost done so that funding kind of the needs kind of EB and Flow uh but maximizing our resources and having good relationships with neighboring agencies is most important too because cost sharing goes a long way there's a lot of projects that we work in tandem with um henpen County and Three Rivers Park and we're not paying for everything ourself so it's important to know where to look all right thank you all right this next question we'll go first to uh Mr castalano what measures would you support if any to address housing needs in Mound if there are housing needs in Mound we have a really varied housing stock really I mean we have a lot of multif family we have a lot of single family we have a lot of medium density um I haven't heard residents or anyone bring an issue that they're I guess nothing that another city isn't also dealing with you know we kind of did put a policy in place regarding Airbnb and verbo um as we listen to Residents that they were not really wanting those um and that does take away homes that people would buy to to move here so um but as far as issues of the housing stock I I haven't heard of any all right Michelle heric um to Kevin costan's Point yes there are a lot of different types of housing available here I have heard from several people like in other cities we don't have enough affordable housing um I'm not sure that I'm on board for the city to provide that type of housing because we're not in that business as a city um as I said earlier I'm not in favor of high density housing so I'm not really sure what the city can actually do to provide housing for people um I know we don't have the infrastructure in place to support um some of the people we've got some unhoused people that live in some of our areas um that's been a problem um yeah so hopefully um the citizens of mountain figure out what's going on most people move here because they like the quaintness so I don't think high density housing is a solution okay Trey Woodson I I think Mound um I think we have like we're one of the cities with with the most affordable housing already so like if you go to other cities that are near us mria even which is right next door to us you know I I want to say minaka Beach of course but like we have the cheapest prices it's kind of one of the reasons me and my wife moved to Mound was because the price were cheap um so I don't think we really as as Michelle was saying we we don't really need to get any more um like high density you know affordable housing because we're not really in the market for that so all right thank you J Khan I'm going to Echo most of the other people here um like Michelle I am against any high density development I don't think that's necessary here we honestly don't have really the land available for it at this point anyway um what's wonderful about Mound is we do have a variety of socioeconomic levels that live here we kind of have organically affordable housing just based on our housing stock um over 50% of our housing well over 50% is just single family homes but they're VAR so much in size that um we do have lots of affordable homes for people so I don't know that that's a major concern for us here all right thank you all right this next question will go first to Trey Woodson what information about Council activities do you think it is important to share with the mound community members what in your opinion are effective ways to Comm communicate that information Mr Woods well I think any big in infrastructure infrastructure project um that they have or any huge expense that's going to come up I think is something that's important to kind of relay to to Residents and I think that the current Council and and mayor do a very good job of of letting of letting uh the residents know about that um both through just meetings and also online I know um they've opened up some other channels that previously weren't there um on online and social media accounts so I think they're doing a really good job all right thank you Kevin Castellano can you say the question again please yeah sorry no no problem what information about Council activities do you think it's important to share with the mount community members what in your opinion are effective ways to communicate that information um I think it's important to share all of it uh make sure that it is as easy to obtain as possible because different topics interest different people people so um we make sure it's all equally available um this is really largely due to the the work of our Personnel committee they've done a lot of great work in the last couple years of improving our website uh social media and our newsletter just to make information um as easy to access as possible everything's updated it's just one click away um you just have to like our Facebook page and and and find it um every agenda is is available as as soon as it needs to be and I mean I just go into City Hall whenever you need anything just show up but uh I think it all needs to be available all right it's all important thank you Michelle herck this is a topic very close to my heart um yeah uh the city council has done quite a bit to um provide the information both on Instagram Facebook YouTube their newsletter has been revamped um I've heard positive feed back on all of that um there are a lot of times when the city's involved in development issues that are not necessarily for public view however once they become that type of issue I think the city should do everything they can to promote and push that information out to the citizens to give them an opportunity to review it and comment um I know that the new development that's being built right across from um artil Lady of the Lake is having a public um meeting I think on the 24th of September and I encourage our citizens and everyone in the community to come to that to get a better understanding to make sure that we're informed that will help the city council make a better decision with Community input all right thank you jna Khan uh thank you communication is just kind of a perennial criticism that comes out everyone loves to say that the city is not communicating and um I know that that's been a big priority for mayor Holt and the again the council has done a lot of work on this in the past couple years um when I first moved here we had the newsletter and that was it but now we've got the expanded newsletter they've got a Facebook page they've got Instagram they've got YouTube the meetings are available online that to watch um after they're completed um the newslet has been expanded and um I was able to work with mayor Holt and there's a I read an article for the parks department now in the newsletter every uh quarter to you know further educate citizens what's available here um they've done a lot of work um I really would be curious to know what PE what more communication people would want um I do feel the information's out there and honestly it's really wonderful that people don't feel the need to show up at our meetings because it means that things are actually running pretty well and people don't have major criticisms thank you all right thank you all right we're getting close to the end here but we have a question about cannabis so we want to get want to work that in under current law cannabis production facilities and dispensaries are legal in Minnesota cities must permit at least one dispensary per 12,500 residents while Mound has approximately 9,000 residents how open or restrictive do you believe Mound should be in allowing or limiting cannabis businesses and why Mr Castellano um so I believe that it should definitely be regulated I mean it's a controlled substance um this would be or will be eventually a very big um topic for the Planning Commission first uh we did work on zoning recently um having listened to the Planning Commission and the residents so like everything else I mean listening to the residents is important so we put um you know pretty restrictive zoning in place um I think it should be regulated just and it will be like alcohol is I mean the ocm the office of cannabis management is still forming so we haven't talked about it very much yet just because there's so many things that haven't even happened yet that we're not in a position to decide a lot of things until more regulations come handed down from the state um but this is just careful planning and um zoning is already in place all right thank you uh Joanna Khan thank you yeah I know the city has been proactive this has already been discussed um it's still kind of the Wild West in determining all the rules so I don't feel super confident in having a very composed answer on this because honestly I think the state is still figuring a lot of this stuff out um in this issue particularly I think it would be most important to listen to the residents and what they want since that's most impactful for them and their families thank you thank you Michelle herck thank you as what's you know what's been stated previously um there was a meeting and I did attend it um we need to treat this like any other business um we are required currently by the current guidelines to allow one opportunity per 10,000 people um where I think the concern is is that it was stated that we can't limit them um I don't think by requiring them to stay within a particular Zone um I would believe in the tightest restrictions that we can apply we have a lot of young children in our community um that I don't believe would their parents would appreciate us exposing them to this um the current guidelines I think vary from 500t to 1,000 ft um I hope the city would continue to go down the path of being at least restrictive in that sense but not limiting the business opportunity all right thank you Trey Woodson I I agree with Michelle I think it needs to be restrictive and also agree with Kevin um we need to make sure we vet whoever we do allow to kind of open a business in Mound um but uh I think the biggest thing is just to listen to the residents uh because uh you know I myself am not uh you know I'm not pro I'm not for it but uh I believe that we should listen to what what everyone else wants so all right um we've got some audience questions I'm going to try and get these in so if you can make your answers brief uh first we'll go to U Miss Conan Mountain currently bans backyard chickens however in recent years there been renewed Community interest is this ban something you would consider or reconsider if elected why or why not I mean sure I would reconsider it I really again I don't have enough information um I you know it's been a Resurgence since Co so I'd be curious to hear people's perspectives on it so sure I'd be willing to listen to it I don't have strong feelings what way or the other thank you all right Miss herck as I said early I'm used to doing a lot of analytical work and I also deal with a lot of regulations within our industry um this has been vented by the city in the past um I'm in agreement with um Joanna I would like to see the situation and understand exactly what the community is asking for um the citizens often have great ideas and I think we can accommodate those if they fall within the current guidelines and I'm not really sure what the county and the state guidelines are for that but um obviously Mound would want to consider anything that its citizens would like to talk about all right Mr calano this is one of those issues that everyone is okay with as long as it's not their neighbor fair enough um nimi and this is something that would go to PL to to city council first and then go to planning so I a lot of people say that they they want chickens and a lot of people have brought that up um and I just keep telling them they have to go to a meeting and and tell us that or email us that or send a note to the city manager and you know it just hasn't been brought up that often um but it's something that people need to bring up and our Planning Commission would just work on probably mirroring uh what maybe some of our neighboring cities do that that do allow chickens it really comes down to lot size and a lot of noise ordinances and I don't know that a lot of our yards are big enough to even accommodate it so yeah I don't know it's something that may may or may not happen all right thank you Mr Woodson uh I myself have not heard of of any of the residents complaining about not being able to have chickens but I'm imagining the reason is is because like himing noise ordinances are probably one of the main concerns I think I take it as a case- by case basis um if you got a lot of neighbors complaining I don't I don't think that would probably be a good good thing to keep from so all right we got this probably be our last question um it'll go first to uh Trey Woodson what will you do to enhance public transportation in Mound to provide more travel options around the county and state you know I think Mound has uh I haven't really heard a lot of complaints from residents about not having enough public transportation op options I feel like we do a pretty good job of of the current infrastructure we have for public transportation so so I don't really have an answer for that all right uh Joanna Khan thank you I agree with um large scale public transportation you know we do have the bus depot um I honestly don't quite know what else we would get here for public transportation what I do think we could improve upon is definitely the sidewalks in our downtown area the Dakota Trail is such a wonderful resource that we have and it does bring a lot of bicyclist through our town um and I would love for them to be able to peel off the Dakota Trail and enjoy iing through our city a little bit more so I think we could kind of um improve the downtown for that thank you all right Michelle herck um I agree we've had a um long relationship with met counsil and the bu uh Depot um I haven't heard any complaints uh there um I think the city council's been working very hard to improve the sidewalks and streets The Crossing for the Dakota Trail was just implemented and I think opened up in the last couple weeks so um I'm not really sure what type of mass transit or I don't really know whether or not um you can get Uber and those type of services out here I haven't really investigated that I've used Uber before but not in the city of Mound um so I know this is a bedroom community so there's a lot of personal vehicles out here um I understand there's probably an issue for some of the handic handicapped or sight impaired that would require some personal Transportation but I believe that's also provided by I think we can and a couple other organizations all right Mr calano our city is really really walkable and pedestrian friendly uh it's gotten a lot better with the recent crosswalks that are getting done um but I can walk from you know almost the end of three points Boulevard all the way to Surfside without leaving a sidewalk um so we've got a good thing going there as far as like buses go a lot of that is up to Metro Transit and people uh if if residents are wanting routes reinstated or things change they kind of need to Conta protect them and I've helped direct people to the right place with that uh because the the bus that did come to our Depot was gone for a while but it has been it has been reinstated I don't think it comes as often but I think it's from what I from what I hear it's uh it's there enough as it needs as it needs to be thanks all right thank you I've been told I skipped over a question here so we go to Trey Woodson first please give examples of how you've been able to work productive productively with those who do not share your views Mr Woodson well I work with a group of other engineers and uh there's always times when we don't uh we don't see eye to eye um one of my strong points is being a collaborative uh team member and uh you know being able to uh work uh if they you know kind of outnumber me well I'll usually be you know um very supportive in their opinion even if it's not one that I initially came up with so I'm very willing to work in a group um I'm willing to compromise so pretty much all right Miss Khan um did I mention that I worked in a state prison very used to working with people that don't agree with me um at the end of the day and this is what all candidates do we have to do what we think is right so it's up to us to listen to other people take in all the evidence and then we have to make our own decision and for better and For Worse I'm not really a people pleaser so if someone disagrees with me that's okay it doesn't bother me very much and I'll let it go we'll vote agree with me or disagree with me I'll accept the way that the vote goes and we move on with our life and on to the next issue thank you thank you there herck um as I've stated before I'm a senior project manager I deal with um very large contracts and have to negotiate um multi-million dollar contracts and agreements so I'm used to the legal aspects of that as well as negotiating between two differing parties that don't see eye to eye so um a lot of times I'm in the middle of that um as we move forward there's a lot of collaboration that needs to happen between the community as well as between them and the city council and the Planning Commission um I think we could do a better job like I said earlier with communication um I think those are probably the biggest ad repeats that I have that would be beneficial to the city council all right thank you Kevin calano um you know not just on the city council I think a lot of commissions too but we disagree all the time um it's just part of you know making a lot of the important decisions that need to be made at our meetings there's often a timeline attached and there's kind of two factors there you need to do what's best for the city as everyone else has said um doing what's in the best interest of the city while also listening to the residents and trying to make the most the the greatest amount of people happy with that result um it's often not personal and you just need to focus on teamwork and coming to the best solution for the city all right thank you all right um one more question perhaps I've got time uh about okay um is there any issue that wasn't discussed in this forum that you wish to address and we'll start start with Mr Castellano there's always one um we talked about water um I I mean I don't think so um for me it really comes down to the ongoing issue and that's just addressing our finances so there's a lot of moving Parts in there and different priorities for different people uh but as far as you know one underlying issue I mean I think we covered them all pretty well tonight okay uh Miss uh KH I am so glad you snuck this question at the end because yes there is one more thing I'd like to discuss uh in the near term um our library is going to be undergoing a complete reconstruction so it's going to be down for service for they say 15 months we all know it's going to be longer than that um you know the city is here to support its residents and losing Library services for that long is really harmful to a lot of people especially those that don't have transportation to be able to get to the library in St Bonnie or Maple plane um I know it has already been discussed at Council um that the city could be helping to provide some Library services in the interim like Computer Services um I know one of the churches is going to step up and provide a space for story time um I would really love to be part of this planning to have more robust services for the library um while they're undergoing this construction I've been to all the library meetings so far and I'm really well acquainted with this issue all right Michelle herck um I think probably some of the other issues is we have a lot of um volunteering opportunities within the city I know I myself I serve on um one of the the uh the um Sorbo Park group we have multiple residents in the area that come out and help clean up the park um another issue would probably be going back to transparency and making sure the citizens are aware of our long-term budget plans um I know the water system is running at a very large deficit cash deficit prox a little over $4 million do which I think is critical to the understanding people are not um aware of that issue um we often get hit hard with why is our water so expensive and it looks so bad I mean it's like every day on social media so I think providing that transparency to our community would help them understand what the situation is better thank you Trey Woodson um I think one of the issues we didn't talk about was education um and I know it's kind of a hot button topic um with some of the residents um my son's only eight months old so I don't really know uh I haven't really dug deep on it but uh I feel like just going back and kind of reassessing like what they're teaching in schools and and uh just kind of overall seeing if if the residents are happy with what their children are being taught all right thank you all right we work through the questions and pretty good time um we'll now come to uh closing statements so I'll give you a second to collect your thoughts and uh you'll have two minutes for your uh closing statement and we'll begin with Miss Khan Joanna Khan I just want to say a big thank you to everyone that is here tonight um and to everyone that's going to be watching at home either currently or later um it's just really gratifying to see how much people care about a small town city council race obviously this is an important race for us we're up here putting ourselves out there um and it's really nice to see that it's an important race for other people too I've just been really gratified by the emails that I've received um you know the people that have requested lawn signs and people that have donated to my campaign like it's wonderful to see how passionate people are about our city and about the opportunities that we have here um I've only ever worked in public service you know I taught in high school and I taught in the Corrections Department I currently am a second term Parks commissioner here um I also just got hired to go work over at the whack um and I provide child care over at ECFE um I'm really used to bureaucracy the pros and cons of it and the thing is that with the pace of bureaucracy it is slow it is very slow and it's something that a lot of people find frustrating but on the upside that's all I've ever known it's very slow used to working with it so it takes a lot to get to get through this bureaucracy you do have to have kind of a thick skin you have to have a lot of perseverence a lot of patience and be willing to sit through a lot of meetings and the good news is I'm willing to do all those things on your behalf so you don't have to do them um at the end of the day everyone sitting up here cares a lot about the city um but also at the end of the day most of us are newbies we have little to no experience with city council um so you as voters you really just have to kind of look up here think who's got the passion for the city who's willing to listen to you who is willing to you know make educated choices on your behalf and who you think is going to be able to make the city better for all of us so again again I appreciate all of your support tonight and please go out and vote and I look forward to seeing the results in November all right uh Trey Woodson so as I stated in the beginning I'm probably the youngest candidate here the newest I want to say the I don't want to say youngest the newest candidate here um out of all of us I've got the least amount of experience but that being said I want to bring a fresh perspective uh to the city and um I like our current leadership I like our current Council I feel you've done a really good job of kind of turning things around from you know five six seven years ago so um and I just feel like I could contribute uh you my infrastructure background um to the city um and everyone I've met running into when I was campaigning as well has been super nice um just kind of goes to show that the residents of this city um are just amazing so thank you all right Kevin Castellano uh having lived here for the last 21 years um I I fully realize what assets and challenges make us unique uh we have a lot of the same problems that other cities have and we have a lot that are unique to us um it's not the most exciting thing to talk about but I always want to continue to improve upon the budget because it provides a direct benefit to all residents no matter where you live when that is healthy um we have made a lot of success there in the last two years even alone and we're on the right track but our water fund is over $4 million in the whole and I don't think I'll be happy having something else be a top priority until some of these things are fixed um but we do have a good plan in place um transparency is important and I just want to State again how great the Personnel committee has been in this last two years in making all information accessible and and easier to get to because all issues are important um just different things to different people so we been working really hard to make sure that it's uh as easy as it can be to get a hold of and as up toate as it can be um we have added a couple new roles the deputy city manager and director of Public Works uh I think residents are being served better um there's more attention to our public green spaces uh this town is going to look better than it has in a long time now that Surf Side is done uh with that new playground and then the Lost Lake Commons will it's got three phases but it'll be done before we know it um and I think that's also most important because it makes downtown that much more an appealing place for people to want to hang out uh but yeah I look forward to continuing this over the next four years thank you thank you Michelle herck thank you everyone for coming tonight um I truly appreciate the collaboration and the efforts that the city council has made to this point both budgetary both in the budgetary can't spit that out both in the budget Arena um andon working on very hard and diligently on the infrastructure um I think we all should be very proud and thankful to both Kelly Morrison and um Mr Meers um it's um been a long hard Road and there's a lot of um issues that are coming at the city council and various Arenas and as Kevin said earlier all of them are important to everyone um there's a lot of hard decisions that still have to be made so I think um as mentioned earlier we've done a good job of trying to help make the city more attract attractive and feasible to new business and I hope we can attract that new business to meet the needs of the community um we are right for development we are very limited in the space that we have available um we have put in some ordinances and guidelines um I hope that we will follow those and not vary from those or provide variances to some of these developers because as I've stated earlier I am committed to helping the citizens of Mound not patting the pockets of developers I would appreciate your consideration and thank you in advance for your vote and uh thanks everyone for coming tonight and for legal Women Voters thank you all right if you'll all bear with me I have a closing statement I have to read this concludes the Mountain City Council candidate Forum we close with several thank yous first on behalf of the legal Women Voters please join me in thanking the candidates for being part of the democratic process by running for office and for being willing to serve our community thank you also to the League of Women Voters volunteers our audience here and those viewing this event virtually for your participation in this candidate Forum thank you to the city of Mound for supporting this event and recording tonight's Forum on demand viewing can be accessed at lwv WP a.org for additional election information we encourage you to visit vote411.org the leue of Women Voters award-winning One-Stop shop where voters can register to vote find their polling place and learn how candidates stand on issues please remember to vote in the November 5th election by absentee ballot or in person on the November ballot Minnesota V voters will be asked to reauthorize or end a constitutional amendment allocating 40% of State Lottery proceeds to the environmental and natural resources trust fund over 50% of Voters must vote Yes to approve a constitutional protection of the system leaving the question blank counts as a no vote please be sure to look for this amendment and uh understand it and vote on it early voting begins this Friday September 20th your vote is your voice lwv welcomes new members both women and men at lwv swpa.gov thank you and good night